Government can now identify genuine beneficiaries and transfer subsidies directly to their bank accounts.
100 million Indian residents can now receive payments from the government directly to their bank accounts, the Unique Identification Authority of India said.
The government is linking residents’ unique identity numbers, known as Aadhaar, to their bank accounts to identify genuine beneficiaries of subsidies and welfare payments.
So far, 333 banks are taking part in the programme and 79.4 million transactions worth INR 51.51 billion (US$808.5 million) have been made in government welfare schemes.
Aadhaar, claimed by India to be the largest biometric database in the world, is a project to collect and link residents’ biometric data to unique identity numbers, which can be used to authenticate transactions with the government.
Residents have the option to get an Aadhaar number. More than half the Indian population – over 720 million people – have received their Aadhaar numbers since the first one was issued in 2010.
